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Monday, September 30, 2013

Tiana Dress for Little Momo

We took Momo to her first Disney cruise vacation this spring, and immediately upon returning, she asked for the Princess Tiana Dress. Momo did not even like the movie Princess and the Frog before the trip, but during the vacation Momo had several chances to meet the princess Tiana, and became her fan. Cannot blame her...she was beautiful and graceful, and she had this big beautiful gown fit for a princess. One day Princess Tiana took Momo's hand to have a little walk together, and that made ME a Tiana fan too ;)

Beautiful Princess Tiana in her gorgeous gown.

So Momo asked for the Princess Tiana dress...maybe I should not be just giving her another princess dress and spoiling her, but actually I am happy to make one for her. Momo gets to play dress-up, I get to sew fantasy dress that anything goes, and also this satisfies my mamarazzi need to photograph her all dressed up ;)

I am entering this as the Project Run and Play Week 4 sew along, "Signature Style". I never entered the signature style challenge, because I was, maybe still am, not exactly sure what my style is. I am still learning to sew, trying out the patterns that catches my eyes. But looking at my past creations, it is safe to say something girl-y is my style. Also so far I have turned my daughter into Alice, Belle, Cinderella, and Tinker Bell. My daughter loves Disney and I am willing to let her have all the dress-up fun at this stage. I have more princess dresses planned to sew after this one, so I think Disney/princess dresses can be somewhat my signature look.

"Kiss, Kiss!"

Another reason why this dress is my signature look is...well, it took me forever to finish this dress. I have been working on this dress all summer. I actually constructed and ripped apart the dress 3 times. My first attempt was to use the elastics in the back, but that did not work well with the full skirt. I should have thought well...I am using 2 pieces cut salvage to salvage for the skirt. So I cut a new back bodice with a button closure. I finished it and tried it on Momo, and found it was too big. Fine, I ripped it apart and made it smaller. But then I made it too small. So that is how I had to make and take the dress apart 3 times. As usual I struggle with the sizing, I make errors, and I am a slow sewer...now if THAT is not my signature style, I do not know what is ;)

I ended up attaching the buttons side by side in the back. Wired look, I know, but I did not have enough energy or fabric to make a new bodice.

I was very tempted to add the frog buttons I saw at a store, but I resisted and went with those prettier buttons ;)

The last princess dress was made with crepe-back satin, and I found it was easy to sew and I liked how it looked. This time I chose crepe for the main green fabric, because I did not want something too shiny or heavy. But crepe fabric would sometimes get caught in my sewing machine... I do not know if that is a common issue or not, but I had to be careful and slow. For the inner layer I picked inexpensive ivory satin, because cheap satin was lighter than nicer more expensive ones. I also added green organza to finish off the dress.

The same ivory satin was used to make the crown and the flower pin.

I skipped making gloves. I felt they were not necessary.

The dress looks better with volume added with the underskirt. Momo is wearing a underskirt in the indoor photos above, but I left it out for the outdoor photo shoot. Though Momo is actually great at walking around in the floor-length skirt, I did not want to take a chance outdoors, where ground is not even and especially around the swamp.

Strapless design was not going to work on a little girl, so I adjusted the self-drafted crisscross bodice I have used to make sundresses in the past. I am still not sure what is the best way to construct the crisscross design, so I am wanting to check out the commercial pattern. The flower petals in the middle were hand-sewn to the dress.

I decided not to make petal shapes for the skirt. One of the reasons is that I thought the petals would make the dress look like a Tinker Bell dress. Another reason is I could not make the single layer petals look good. Those petals used in the bodice and flower are double layered. I was afraid using the double-layered petals in the skirt would make the dress too heavy for Momo.

My little monkey actually looks like a princess!! :D

It was very frustrating working on this dress, but I finally finished it! I am a bit burned out and I thought I would take a little break from sewing, but I must finish another princess dress before Halloween. Momo has not made up her mind yet what she wants to be for Halloween this year...and I know what she decides today is not going to be her choice one week before Halloween. I am hoping she will pick one of the princess dresses and be happy, and will not suddenly say she wants to be a hamburger or something... ;P

Thank you Project Run & Play for the fun season! I am just happy I was able to participate in the sew alongs each week!

26 comments:

Oh my! That dress is BeeYouTeeFul! My machine ate silk charmeuse and I've been too scared to try again. You are so brave to always try new things! I really love the organza side swoop thing, and the flower. And the headband. Oh, I like itall!

What a GORGEOUS dress!!! It looks so professional and amazing! I'm really glad my daughter is not looking at my computer so she can't make me sew this for her, lol! And that movie gets better and better the more you watch it :)

Oh Annie! This is just so beautiful! I'm so impressed by your hard work and dedication to finish this project! I think my favorite part of the dress is how the front sweeps up and the underneath is peaking through. Momo looks adorable in it as always! I'm getting ready to try my first princess dresses for my girls for Halloween and I'm very nervous. I might have to ask you for some help! :)